Metallurgical heating process.



B. E. ELDRED.--

, METALLURGICAL HEATING PROCESS.

APPLIOATIOK FILED MAY 28, 1007.

Patented Au 13, 1912.

- SHEBTS-SHEET 1.

INVENTOR MQQQJQQ ATTORNEY D B. E. ELDRED.

METALLURGICAL HEATING PROCESS.

APPLIOATION II L BD MAY 28, 1907.

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M on wc vl T 1H mfi m h OL A m B.E.ELDRED. METALLURGICAL HEATING PROCESS.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 28, 1907.

Patented Aug. 13,1912

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4 SHEETS- WITN SSES:

- INVENTQB 5 ATTORNEY v I following tobe a'iull, clear, and exactde-- 'scription of the same, such as will enable UNITED STATEES PATENT OFFICE.

- BYRON ELDRED, OF BRONXVILLE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR.TO THE- COMMERCIAL- BESEARCHCOMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.. A CORPOBATION OF NEW YORK.

I METALLURGICAL HEATING PROCESS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BYRON E. Enniicn, a citizen of the United states residing at Bronxville, in the county of Westchestcr and State of New .York, have invented a certain new and useful Metallurgical Heating Processes; and I do hereby declare the others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same; v

This invention relates to metallurgical heating processes, and consists in a method of heating metals and other sensitive ma-,

terials to high temperatures'by means of streaming atmospheres of, indifferent producer gas, charged withsensible heat; all

as more fully hereinafter set forth and as claimed. I

I In mostmethods now in use for imparting high temperatures at and above a red heat, heating is done by causing combustion to take place in and around the materials to be heatedor by causing intensely hot produdts of combustion to contact with such materials. As combustion in practice cannot-be eiiiciently carried out without an excess of oxygen, frequently approaching 20- per cent. of excessair, it is diflicult to heat to very high temperatures in this manner without oxidation of such metals as copper and iron. -lVhen flames'are run reducing, there are usually oxidizing strata in them which are likely to cause injurydf they happen to contact with such metals, and

such reducing'fia'mes are apt to deposit car- .bon in the form of soot. Neither can a reducing flame be run at very high tempera-'-- tures, an excess of oxygen being necessary for quick combustion and high temperature.

v a steel with a certain content of carbon or necessary amount of heat being imparted to the gas in the form of sensible heat prior to its contact with the objects to be heated. Using producer gas as the carrier, it may be very advantageously heated to the necessary high temperature by combustion of the gas after it has contacted with the materials to be heated. With such producer gas,

contacted with the said materials.

Patented Aug. 13, 1912.

its contact with the materials to be heated instead of prior thereto, and the heat of combustion'is imparted to fresh gas to be For this purpose hot producer gas taken directly from the producer is very advantageous. Its high temperature enables it to be stepped up to intense temperatures in going through regenerators heated .by combustion of such intensely hot gas, while its substantial freedom both from sucl oxidizing gases as carbon dioxid and oxygen and from such carbon-depositing gases as the hydrocarbons found in ordinary fuel gas, enables it to be contacted with hot metals without fear. It contains carbon substantiall only in the form of G0 which has no ten ency to give up carbon or soot or toimpart oxygen to oxidizable bodies.

While the stated operation may be effected by direct combustion of the gas issuing from the heating furnace around the conduit carrying gas into the said furnace, it is generally better, and particularly in the case of the hi h temperatures, at and above a red heat, herein contemplated more particularly, to use some form of regenerative device, as it is diificult to find materials suiticiently conductive of heat and resistant thereto to moderate sized structures. However, conduits of tile and the like may be employed.

This invention is particularly useful in furnaces for heating thin sheet metal, for heating piled metal and for like purposes where oxidation is ver undesirable, and further for heatin stee s and other metals of exact composition which composition it is desired to maintain unchanged. Taking ermit use of compact relativelyof such oxidizable alloying constituents as versed arch 5.

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view partly in elevation and partly in section, showing the completeapparatus, the furnace and valves being shown on different levels in order that each may be seen in elevation,

Like reference characters designate like parts in all views.

In the drawings, 1 designates a heating chamber having doors 2 and a floor 3 slop-.

ing upwardly to the doors (see Fig. at). Above it is provided with a roof & of the usual refractory materials shaped. in the form of a double reverberatory, having a re- At the sides of the chamber 1 and separatedtherefroni by walls 6 and 7 are a pair of structures generally like regenerators; and above these regenerators are combustion chambers 8 and 9 communicating with chamber 1 over the tops of walls 6 and 7. Each regenerator is divided by walls 10 and 11, into twin chambers, respeotively 12. and 13 and 14 and 15. These chainbers are all provided with the usual checker- Work or other suitable structure, 16, of refractory materials. Butterfly valves 17 and 18 control the course of the gases through the checkerwork chambers. Gas enters through a duct 19, and air through a duct 20. The valve chambers, 21 and 22, in which valves 17 and 18 are located, communicate with an ofl'take 23; such communication being controlled, as regards chamber 22, by a saucer valve 24;, which is normally closed,-

except when heat-in up the chamber 1, as

hereinafter describe Valves 17 and 18 are normally set in-opposite positions, as shown in Fig. 6; that is to say, in the language of' the art, the valves are crossed normally.

' Supposing the furnace to be in full operation, and the valves to be in the positions shown in the drawings, gas enters at 19, and is deflected by valve 17 int-o passage 25, leadingto checker chamber 14; and air enters at 20, and is deflected by valve 18 into passage 26, leading to checker chamber 12. Chamber 14 is hot, having been heated previously by down flow of hot gases through it, and the gas from passage 25 becomes highly heated in passing through it, and then passes through furnace chamber 1 to chamber 8 where it encounters the air passing through passage 26 and chamber- 12 and begins to burn, the flame and heated products of combustion passing down through checker chamber 13 and through passage 27 to valve 17 and thence to oiftake 23. Combustion of the gas therefore takes place, after the gas has passed through the furnace chamber 1, and while it is in or passing through chamber 13; the checker work in chamber 13 being thereby highly heated and the products of combustion in turn cooled. After a time,

when the checker work in chamber 14 has been cooled below the point of eflicient heating, and that in chamber 13 has been highly heat-ed, the positions of valves 17 and 18 are reversed, gas now passing through passage 27 and chamber 13, being heated therein,

, combustion taking place in chambers 9 and 14:, the gases passing-down through chamber 14 and heating the checker work therein, and

then passing through passage 25 to offtake 23.

When the furnace is operating in the manner described, heatin in chamber 1 is performed entirely by tl intensely hot but unburnt gas, which gas is practically free of air and hence constitutes a non-oxidizing atmosphere. Preferably, the gas enters duct 19 direct from a producer, and at the high temperature at which it is discharged from such producer; and having such high temperature initially, and being stepped up to a much higher temperature plane by the heat impartedto-it in the checker-Work chamber 13 or 14, as the case may be, its temperature is quite high enough to enable it to perform eflicient heating of metals in chamber 1 without any combustion in said chamber whatever, and'with all the 1e sensible heat of the' advantages of an absolutely smokeless non-;

oxidizing atmosphere. The advantages of heating in suchan atmosphere will be obvious. Not only will oxidation or other contamination of the material heated be avoided but the heating will be very thorough and uniform, inall parts of chamber 1. It will be noted that while in ordinary furnaces in which combustion takes place before the gas enters the heating chamber or while in said chamber, the temperature at the outlet end of saidcha'mber is usually considerably less than that 'at or near the inlet end, the temperature at the outlet end of chamber 1 will be substantially that at the inlet end or even slightly higher, owing to radiation and conduction of heatfrorn the checker chamber in which combustion is taking place. It will be obvious, however, that there may be par- IIO tial combustion of gas under certain conditions in chamber 1 without impairing the protection against oxidation of the material on the hearth 3, and thatthereby the heatin efliciency in chamber 1 maybe raised sti higher, by radiation of heat toward the hearth. To this end, it is necessary merely to admit above the stratum of gas a stratum of air. Combustion will then take place along the area, of contact of the t-wostrata while passing through chamber 1, while below the flame stratum will be a stratum of gas un mixed with air and therefore not burning izs v the presence of an excess-0f air. This per-' I the material under treatment, or,-produc er. non-sootmg, of deposition of car gas being but allowing-the radiant heat from the combustion above to pass downward there through to the materials to-be heated beneath. One convenient manner of obtaining mits an intense hot combustion near the refractory roof, whence heat will be radiated downward, without danger of oxidation of bon thereon. 1

' i In so fa'ras yet described, checker chambers'12 and 15 have had no function other, than toserve as flues, norhas saucer valve 24. vThese chambers and the saucer valve are employed when heating up the chamber 1 quickly, and when, therefore, combustion .-in this chamber, is desired. At such times,

as a Fig. 6, valve, 18 w1ll then be inthe position opposite {that shown in said figure, and gas valves 17 .and 18 are set. in corresponding posit-ions, 1nstead of being crossed as before, and valve 24 israised. Supposing that valve 17 is in theposition shown in and airwillenter through passages 25 and 28 respectively, will pass through checkerchambers 14 and 15, respectively, becoming highly heated in so doing, and will then mingle, combustionwill begin, and the burning gases'will flow through chamber 1, be-

ing deflected downward toward the floor of thechamber by the reversed arch 5 thereof, and will then pass 'out through chambers '12 and 13, passages 27 and 26, and chambers 21 and an, (Fig.4) to stack 23. Periodically the valves 17 and 18 will be reversed to send the enterin gas and air through the highly heated ch'echer chambers and to send -the'products of combustion through 'the partly cooled chambers. Under these conditions chamber 1 will'b'e heated up very rapidly indeed, as will the checker chambers. This heating chamber is charged with a store of sensible heat and the duty imposed upon the superheated combustible gas thereafter introduced as regards carrying in sensible heat. is lessened to that extent. Practically the superheated gas has merely to carry in the units lost by radiation and those absorbed. by the iron being heated. It will be seen, therefore, that by the ar rangement of butterfly valves 17 and 18 and saucer valve 24, shown, I haveproduced a very simple and easily operated valve-structure, convertible-at will from a three-way valve to'a four-way valve, and by its opera tion capable of changing the heating condi-' .tions in the furnace instantly from nonoxidizing heatin 'without combustion, to,

heating with com ustion either oxidizingor reduclng. I The furnace, when working normally with combustion of the gas after passing through chamber 1, will customarily be worked under slight plus pressure, so that there may be no infiltration of air into the hot but imburnt gas.- The effect of the progressive expansion of the gas as it becomes heated I in passing through the checker work is to .producethe desired plus pressure.

Under certain conditions I find it conveiaient and useful to introduce air for roof combustion. through nostrils in or closeto' the. reverberatory arch 14 of chamber 1. For this purpose I have shown in Figs. 1. and 6, nostrils 29'supplied with air by a pipe 30, and provided with valves 31 whereby the flow of such air may be regulated or beintroduced above. the gas in its passage through the heatin chamber 1. This thm current of airwil burn in and with the uppermost layer or'producer gas, in the surface of the arch and upper wall ofthe fur nace chamber, aflording a useful source of radiant -heat which will penetrate down ward through the body of heated. as to the metal articles tobe heated. Com ustion is particularly active in and upon the surface irregularities of refractorymaterials and a thin stream of air led alon the surface of the arch will produce a lieatlng efie'ct out of proportion to its sheer amount. The nostrils may also be used to supply afurther portion of air to the gas just prior to its entry into the checkerwork.

What I claim is '1. In the heating of metal objects, the process which comprises covering said objects in a reverberatory .roofed furnace chamber with a flowing stream of hot re ducing gas in an unburning state and pro ducing near. such roof and inradiant relation to such objects a flame of air burning in the presence of an excess of such gas.

2. In the heating of metal objects, the process whichcomprises surrounding such objects in a furnace chamber with a flowing v stream of hot non-oxidizing unburning combustible gas and injecting air into such cur rent of gas at a distance from the objects to be heated but in radiant relation thereto and thereby producing in such gas current one or more flames of air burning in any excess of such gas.

3. In the operation of furnaces provided stopped. By means of these nostrils a small portion or, thin current of overlyingair can with a furnace chamber and a pair of companion regenerative devices at each end, the process of heating which comprises heating up the furnace chamber by combustion of air and gas therein, said gas and air being respectively introduced through the compamon devices at one end and the products of combustion removed through the companion devices at the other end, alternating such operation untilthe chamber is stored with sensible heat and then alternately passing combustible gas through the chamber from one of each such pair While transmit companion device to the one wherethrough combustible gas is passed being out of operation during such passage.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature,

in the presence of two Witnesses.

c BYRON E. ELDRED.

Witnesses: I

LE0. J. MATTY, H. M. MARBLE. Y 

